Special Effects Make-up

Cuts and Bruises 

In this blog I will be writing about the process of creating wounds, cuts and bruises that we have been taught in our semester. These techniques can be adapted for my final look of Dr.Jekyll to suit the characteristics of him which will match alongside the story line. Special effect cuts could be used on my character to represent the ending to my novel when Dr. Jekyll commits suicide as Mr.Hyde is taking over his body and mind and he can know longer cope. I would like to create the image of his struggle as he is almost fighting against himself to stay sane against his inner evil, I would like to show this through ripped shirts with scratch and cut marks underneath as to represent his struggle with himself. I will research more into how to produce this to make it more realistic as I feel this would look more professional for my character. 

Kit (make-up used):

- Pro Shield 

- Latex 

- Wax

- foundation

- Stipple Sponge

- Bruising wheel

- Hair dyer

- Foundation brush 

- Hair pin 

- Sponge

- Blood

- Supercolour 

- Spatula  

Special Effect; Cuts

Whenever starting a special effects piece on a client the first tip is to always make sure that they are not allergic to any of the products like latex, therefore you have to test them by giving a patch test before starting. When all your kit and supplies are set up, to start making your wound start with a reference picture of something that you would like to achieve and it helps if the picture is a real flesh wound as this can help to make your cut more realistic. Prep the skin with the pro shield foam and massage into the area of skin where you are producing the cut wound and make sure the skin is dry before starting the next step.

Then taking the molding wax I rolled it in my hands to warm up the molding wax to make it easier to mold on the skin. I wanted to make a burnt finger with the skin pealing and a cut along the arm. So I took the wax and molded a small amount around the middle of one finger, making sure the top of the wax was folded over to represent a pealing wound. (shown in picture below)

   

Using the liquid latex take a cotton bud and cover over the top of the wax to blend the wax into the skin and this will make the wound look more life like. To dry the latex take a hair dryer on a low heat and dry the latex until it goes cleat. To finish this part of the look I took some foundation that match my clients skin and stippled this over the wax/latex mix to further blend into the skin. 

Taking the stipple brush and some dark eye shadows of; purples, green, blues, blacks and reds until I had my desired effect I blended it into the finger and along the hand. Underneath the wound I added black supercolour paint and then a mix of reds over the top to create more depth. On the other hand, after creating this folded over finger wound I was not to happy in the realism of it therefore I removed the wax and continued to create a more realistic look. 

I continued this more realistic look by producing a cut on the wrist by using the same technique as the finger but instead I took the wax and created a slick down the middle which I then added some fake blood (with a hair pin) to create a more realistic wound. Around the wound I used a stipple sponge and stippled the same eye shadow colours to create bruising and then stippled some blood also.

Continuing, I the stipple sponge again and using some blood I got my client to clench their fist and brushed the sponge across the knuckles to create a grazed knuckle look. I still wanted to continue the gory look up the finger so left the dark shadows and blood on the finger but then I added some darker scab blood around the top of the finger to create a butch up finger. Which in the final photo was my final outcome.

Reflective:

Overall, I am quite pleased with my outcome that I finally came out with as I believe it looked quite realistic. But to improve I would plan my ideas better therefore to create a more realistic outcome and it would not make it so fake. I did like my colour pallet that I used for the cut as I think they were the most appropriate colours but to improve I would like to make the wax/latex better blended into the skin as to make it look as it was apart of the real flesh. In conclusion as I wrote in the introduction I would like to create small wounds like this to create a scratch look as to represent the strong desire that Dr.Jekyll had to get his inner evil out, like he was trying to rip it out.